The release of more than 50 floating sensors, called Mobile Earthquake Recording in Marine Areas by Independent Divers (MERMAIDs), is increasing the number of seismic stations around the planet. Scientists will use the floating array to clarify the picture of the massive mantel plume in the lower mantel lying below the South Pacific Ocean. This effort will also establish one of the most comprehensive overviews of seismic activity across the globe.

Frederik Simons, at Princeton University, will discuss this international effort during the marine seismoacoustics session of the 178th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America. The presentation will be given Friday, Dec. 6 at 9:30 a.m. in Empress Room of the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego.

"We are hunting for the deep source of mantel plumes, which bring to the surface hot volcanic material from great depth," said Simons. "What happens inside [the Earth] is all part of the plate-tectonic cycle [that gives] us energy. I see it as both as an opportunity and as a threat."

The floating array offers an advantage over traditional land-based seismic stations. The floating sensors gather data spanning many angles of Earth's interior, producing a massive CAT scanlike reading of seismic activity for the planet.

According to Simons, this effort offers insight into the buoyancy, viscosity, density and temperature of the deep mantel plume as deep as 700 kilometers below Earth's surface. This depth produces a potential barrier for material flowing from the lower into the upper mantel. The relayed information provides the scientific community precise measurements of the propagation speeds of seismic waves traveling through the plume.

The sensors, released in the Pacific Ocean, have a life span of five years. Each device was designed to drift passively, as well as sink to a depth of 3,000 meters. The sensors, which can relay information to scientists in near real time through a satellite link, consists of a hydrophone to capture seismic information, a GPS to annotate location accurately and a unit to digitize and process wavelet detection of the seismic activity underwater.

The array forms the backbone of the South Pacific Plume Imaging and Modeling program, an international effort managed by scientists from China, France, Japan and the United States.

Simons' presentation 5aAO4, "EarthScope-Oceans: An Array of Floating MERMAID Instruments for Earthquake Seismology," was presented Friday, Dec. 6, 2019

Related Links
Acoustical Society of America
Earth Observation News - Suppiliers, Technology and Application

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

China launches new Earth observation satellite
Taiyuan, China (SPX) Nov 30, 2019
China sent a new Earth observation satellite into space from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China's Shanxi Province at 7:52 a.m. Thursday (Beijing Time). The satellite, Gaofen-12, was launched aboard a Long March-4C rocket and entered the planned orbit successfully. It was the 320th flight mission of the Long March carrier rocket series. As part of the country's high-definition earth observation project, the microwave remote sensing satellite is capable of providing photogra ... read more